Skip to content

Ongoing Neurological and Autonomic Sequelae

Day 3 · 1:11:10 · Carol Messenger · Dean Allison

  • ⚡ Severe leg spasms still strike up to five nights a week, forcing her out of bed repeatedly and destroying sleep.
  • 🌡️ Thermoregulation failure leaves lower body icy or burning while feet swell daily like sausages without trigger.
  • 🚶 She walks with a noticeable limp and maintains cautious optimism for further micro-improvements.

Daily reality of incomplete spinal-cord recovery years later.

← Carol Messenger Sworn: From Fire Captain to Sudden Paralysis | Intimacy, Identity and Emotional Trauma After Injury →

Transcript

Carol Messenger · 1:11:10

Yeah.

Carol Messenger · 1:11:10

So it's more noticeable some days than others. I still, every week I always have one or two people, oh, what's wrong? You look injured. Why are you limping?

Dean Allison · 1:11:20

And you didn't share, but you have muscle spasms. I mean, still up to 5 nights a week. Can you share with us about that?

Carol Messenger · 1:11:27

Yeah, it started Funny enough, it started 13 months after my injury. All of a sudden, I— if any of you have experienced, which I know most people have, you get a cramp in your foot and you, you know, you jump up and yelp and stand up or stretch. So imagine that magnified about 100 times and it would last for up to 10 minutes where my whole leg would seize and I would just have to stop myself from hyperventilating. And I would be up probably 6, 8, 10 times a night, forced out of bed. So of course, sleep, everything was just a mess. I had dysregulated thermal regulation from my waist down. If you ever watched the movie Shrek, one foot would turn into Shrek and the other one would look very different. Hot and cold, searing pain with the nerve pain as well.

Dean Allison · 1:12:22

My understanding is you got problems with thermoregulation also. Can you share about that?

Carol Messenger · 1:12:27

Yeah. So as to my point earlier, just, you know, when I was first injured and home, we were going through a bit of a heat dome, if anyone remembers, in August of 2021. I had a heating pad and 3 pairs of wool socks and wool pants from the lower part of my body down and sweating in the upper part. And there was just nothing I could do for it. And there was nothing more that they did for me or that they could do for me at that point was just go home.

Dean Allison · 1:12:58

And your feet swell every day. Can you share, share about that?

Carol Messenger · 1:13:01

Yeah, they're just like little sausages. So, you know, one minute you look down and your foot— sometimes it feels like it's burning and hot. I'll take my sock off and it's freezing cold but swollen. And then it will just— and it just can be triggered It's not triggered by anything. It just happens. So it's very uncomfortable.